Plea bargaining and prosecutorial discretion

A model of plea bargaining with asymmetric information is presented. The prosecutor's private information is the strength of the case; the defendant's is his guilt or innocence. In equilibrium, some cases are dismissed because they are too likely to involve an innocent defendant. In the remaining cases, the prosecutor's sentence offer reveals the strength of the case. A particular restriction on prosecutorial discretion is shown to be welfare-enhancing for some parameter configurations